Not Crap.Bill Skibbee had a no-subtitle copy of this at the Key Club first time we recorded there. Our old guitarist John decided he wanted a copy after watching this. He googled "Japanese Schoolgirls House" and this movie was the second link that came up. Everything else was beyond fucked up.

Hmph. Had very high hopes prior to watching. Was a little underwhelmed. Visually interesting, filmed by people who were clearly out of their minds, and funny as hell. But also quite sappy (in a way that's peculiar to Japanese teen cinema), sorta sloppy, and pretty draggy in spots.

I'm not sure if it's crap or not (I need to see it again or think a little harder), but personally, I don't think it has a patch on Mantago (aka Attack of the Mushroom People) in terms of sheer wackiness and accidental poignancy:

OrthodoxEaster wrote:I'm not sure if it's crap or not (I need to see it again or think a little harder), but personally, I don't think it has a patch on Mantago (aka Attack of the Mushroom People) in terms of sheer wackiness and accidental poignancy:

Dude! If you want to discuss Mantago why not just discuss it instead of debasing Hausu with ridiculous assessments. "Accidental poignancy?" I have no idea what this means in terms of describing Hausu. There is no poignancy to it, and I don't see how it can be any more "wacky." A dude turns into a pile of bananas for no reason at all; a flying detatched head bites the ass of its victim; a fucking piano eats someone in what is most certainly the weirdest and most stylized on-screen death in the history of ever. Come on!

OrthodoxEaster wrote:I'm not sure if it's crap or not (I need to see it again or think a little harder), but personally, I don't think it has a patch on Mantago (aka Attack of the Mushroom People) in terms of sheer wackiness and accidental poignancy:

Dude! If you want to discuss Mantago why not just discuss it instead of debasing Hausu with ridiculous assessments. "Accidental poignancy?" I have no idea what this means in terms of describing Hausu. There is no poignancy to it, and I don't see how it can be any more "wacky." A dude turns into a pile of bananas for no reason at all; a flying detatched head bites the ass of its victim; a fucking piano eats someone in what is most certainly the weirdest and most stylized on-screen death in the history of ever. Come on!

Not interested in having a nerd-off about what is and isn't "weird" or whatever, but Matango isn't a patch on House. It's relatively tame in terms of Japanese genre stuff, in fact.

RSMurphy wrote:Dude! If you want to discuss Mantago why not just discuss it instead of debasing Hausu with ridiculous assessments. "Accidental poignancy?" I have no idea what this means in terms of describing Hausu. There is no poignancy to it, and I don't see how it can be any more "wacky." A dude turns into a pile of bananas for no reason at all; a flying detatched head bites the ass of its victim; a fucking piano eats someone in what is most certainly the weirdest and most stylized on-screen death in the history of ever. Come on!

Well, there you go: Personally, I like some accidental poignancy in my wacky Japanese genre films. House is pretty much just... stylized w/little else to recommend it. Kinda empty unless you're 14 or stoned. Which isn't saying it's useless. It's just kinda two-dimensional. For all the foamy-mouthed ravings I'd heard about it for years, I expected... much more.

Have also had friends of friends (former film students) attempting to explain to me what all this shit in House actually "means." Personally, I don't think it means anything besides the obvious.

As for bringing up Mantago, why not? If you dislike some band in a music thread, why not bring up a comparable band who's done something better?

placeholder wrote:Not interested in having a nerd-off about what is and isn't "weird" or whatever, but Matango isn't a patch on House. It's relatively tame in terms of Japanese genre stuff, in fact.

Me neither. And Mantago isn't remotely as weird as House. I agree that it's "tame" in that respect; but that wasn't my point. I just think it's a much better movie that doesn't simply wallow in weirdness for weirdness' sake. Though it is pretty weird.

House reminds me a lot of the first and only time I ever saw a Gwar gig, circa 1989. Ok, I went, I understand why people might see this band, it's kinda funny, even artistic in some very simple way, but there's just not much to it. And the music kinda blows.

Just kinda-sorta teasing you, OE, although, I still don't understand how Hausu should have any sort of poignancy attached to it, accidental or not. The movie makes no sense and (I think) should just be viewed as a fucked-up, psychedelic, psychosexual, exercise in absurdist comedic-horror filmmaking.

Got the Criterion DVD when it was released and am glad to finally have a legit vers. It's miles above my years-old, crummy-quality, subtitle-free VHS dub. I was missing out on a lot by not understanding the dialogue! The featurette about the production is great and informative. I can't believe I've never seen any of Obayashi's other work, given how much I love this movie.

My very favorite part is when Blanche is sliding all over the piano while that "Pomp and Circumstance"-with-sampled-meowing tune plays. This cracks me up every time I see it.

Our old cat Boris looked a lot like Blanche, but he never got the glowing eyes or did anything too evil. He did projectile vomit on our living room wall once, though.